Lenovo had a very interesting CES 2023. Instead of launching a bunch of new hardware and peripherals, they really leaned into what they are really strong at; the introduced a whole slew of new laptops. Then there is Lenovo’s skunkworks, the Legion. They introduces four new products, or eight depending on how you look at it.
Lenovo Legion 7/7i – Lenovo’s Definitive Gaming Laptop Made Even Better with AI
Welcome to the 2023 Legion Legion Pro 7 and Legion Pro 7i. They are practically the same gaming PCs you can take around and slay in the most popular esports titles wherever you are. They feature the same body designs, mostly same internals, and even the same displays. The only differentiator for both the Legion Pro 7 and Legion Pro 7i is the processors in both laptops. If you have not known yet, the Legion Pro 7i will pack Intel’s latest 13th Generation Core processors while the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 packs AMD’s very newly launched Ryzen 7000 series mobile CPUs. Both will get a healthy dose of NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs too.
To get the most out of the most powerful chips from Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA, Lenovo updated the cooling internals. The result is a wider vapor chamber for both the CPU and GPU. To take full advantage of the updated cooling hardware, the CPU re lined with a liquid metal infusion sending even more heat from the CPU to the heat spreader allowing either the AMD or Intel chip to go full blast even at 235W power draw. They call it the ColdFront 5.0 with Hybrid Thermals.
They say that the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 and Legion Pro 7i are the most powerful 16-inch gaming laptops that is tuned by artificial intelligence (AI). They are not joking though. Running Intel’s, AMD’s, and NVIDIA’s latest and most powerful chips is not enough for Lenovo, it seems. They added another chip within the rather industrial and familiar body. They added an in-house developed AI chip that powers something called Lenovo AI Engine+. The technology is supposed to push the hardware a little further and increase performances in games making the run faster and smoother.
All of these will be seen on the 16-inch 16:10 Puresight Gaming Display. The panel is a WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution display, just a little over 1440p QHD which should make for a rather immersive experience. You get 240Hz refresh rate out of the display as well. Paired with the AI accelerator, games should look and feel great on the Legion Pro 7 and Legion Pro 7i.
As with any Lenovo products, the Legion Pro 7 and Legion Pro 7i comes packing the most premium hardware and build quality. There is the familiar all-aluminium body construction containing everything including the Lenovo Legion Spectrum per-key RGB underneath a proven TrueStrike keyboard. Within the body is also a 99.99Whr battery that is also quick-charge capable.
Lenovo Legion Pro 5/5i – The Perfect Balance
Similar to the Lenovo Legion Pro 7 and Legion Pro 7i line-up, you are getting similar hardware choices on both the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 and Legion Pro 5i variants. You only have to choose between team red and team blue by going either AMD Ryzen 7000 series, or 13th generation Intel Core processors. Completing the gaming laptop an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU (up to).
Like the Legion Pro 7 and Legion Pro 7i, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 and Legion Pro 5i comes packing the Lenvo Legion ColdFront. 5.0 technology that is sure to keep thermals in check, even in a small laptop body. The laptop variants also pack Lenovo’s latest in-house developed Lenovo LA AI chip that is supposed to cleverly push your Legion laptop further by optimizing heat management between the CPU and GPU at up to 200W TGP.
The 16-inch Lenovo Puresight Gaming Display is also a similar one you would find on the Legion Pro 7 and Legion Pro 7i. It is still a 16:10 aspect ratio display that offers WQXGA resolutions at 240Hz. You do not get per-key RGB on the TrueStrike keyboard though. You can choose between a completely white backlighting to keep your laptop looking as clean as soap, or a Spectrum 4-zone RGB to spice your laptop up a little.
Underneath all of that is a smaller 80Whar battery that is also capable of Lenovo’s quick-charge technology. They say that this is the perfect balance between gaming and productivity though with a long-lasting battery life. You get one more colour option too with the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 and Legion Pro 5i, the Abyss Blue, over the regular Onyx Grey you can also find on the Legion Pro 7 and Legion Pro 7i.
Lenovo Legion Tower 7i – Going Beast Mode
Gaming laptops do not cut it for you. Your laptop should be more about work than gaming, and you have this bizarre opinion that your laptop should not cost more than MYR 4,000. You have a good reason though, you want more power, you want a desktop gaming rig. You want the Legion Tower 7i. It should be obvious enough to you now that the ultimate Legion gaming tower comes packing Intel’s latest 13th generation Core processor. At the same time, you get to work with NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 40 series GPU for good measure. Paired with up to 64GB of 5600Mhz DDR5 RAM, you are getting the best-in-class gaming performance out of the tower.
Inside the industrial looking case is a larger VRM heatsinks to ensure that your board is always protected from over-heat. There are up to six ARGB fans to keep as much air moving as possible to keep everything inside the tower form getting toasted or throttled. To ensure that the fans are not restricted too, the front panel is designed with airflow in-mind. If you really want to push things to the extreme, Lenovo gives you the option to go with liquid-cooling for up to 260W TDP performances.
You can configure the tower with up to 6TB of SSD storage to store up to 1000 games within the system. To feed all the components with pure power is a challenge that a 1200W PSU can handle with little issues. The large PSU also opens up avenues for future component upgrades without swapping it out.
Lenovo Legion Tower 5/5i – Smaller Package, Big Power
If the Legion Tower 7i is a little oversized for your set-up, you want the Legion Tower 5 or Legion Tower 5i. By now you should be familiar with Lenovo’s naming schemes. You get AMD on the Legion Tower 5 while the Legion Tower 5i offers you the Intel path. Of course, on both ends, you get AMD’s latest Ryzen 7000 series CPU and Intel’s 13th generation Core CPU options respectively. You get to choose between team green and team red too with the GPU. You can spec your PC with NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs or AMD’s latest Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs to go with an all-red outfit on the Legion Tower 5.
For memory, you can fit your PC with fast 32GB 5600Mhz DDR5 RAM paired with up to 2TB (2x 1TB) of SSD storage to store as many games as you can play in a single seating. Keeping everything cool within the all-metal case with airflow optimized front panel are up to five ARGB fans. These are quiet fans too, to keep noise distractions to a minimum. You will want to upgrade this thing eventually. 850W from the PSU should be enough in terms of future-proofing while the toolless side panel ensures that you can easily remove or open it to upgrade your parts effortlessly.
Availability
Like all things in CES 2023, Lenovo has not mentioned the specific availability date for all the Legion PCs they announced. We are expecting them to launch all these Legion hardware sometime between now and the end of the first half of the year 2023. There are also no pricing information for their announced products so far. More information on the latest Legion laptops and PCs can be found on their website.
